Body type assembly device



2 SHEETS-SHEET l J. F. MURPHY BODY TYPE ASSEMBLY DEVICE Original Filed April 14, 1948 Feb. 10, 1953 Feb. 10, 1953 J. F. MURPHY 2,627,794

ony TYPE ASSEMBLY DEVICE Original Filed April 14, 1948 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Patented Feb. 10, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BODY TYPE ASSElVIBLY DEVICE Joseph F. Murphy, West Roxbury, Mass., assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, to Lumitype Corporation, Roxbury, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts 1 Claim. 1 This invention relates to printing and comprises a new and improved outfit or system for assembling body type in producing high-grade proofs for display headings, layouts, offset printing, zines, and the like. This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 21,072, filed April 14, 1948, now Patent No. 2,489,458 granted November 29, 1949.

Heretofore such proofs have been usually produced from type that must be set by hand at considerable expense and with a very limited range of style available. This is because fonts of large sized type are costly and the printers equipment does not include many varieties thereof. Moreover, body type is expensive because the proof usually requires retouching to eliminate pin holes or other blemishes where the ink has failed to produce a solid black impression. The work, moreover, requires the services of experienced type setters since such body type appears in the reverse of its impression.

The outfit of my invention overcomes all these disadvantages, increases the printers resources, reduces cost, and produces a superior proof by a photographic process. Going more into detail, my novel outfit includes a series of transparent blocks shaped to be assembled in a frame of the general character of a composing stick and each carrying an opaque negative with a transparent letter formed therein. The blocks may be readily and accurately placed in exactly their proper relation, and as assembled they are viewed directlyas their impression is to be seen and not in reverse as is the case in ordinary type. The negative in each case is opaque and the individual blocks are so located in the composing stock that the negatives and the frame or stock form alight-tight mat about the transparent or cutout letters. Having once assembled the individ ual blocks are so located in the composing stick in a photo-graphic enlarger or other suitable apparatus and the line of type blocks photographed directly onto sensitized paper. In this manner a proof may be formed with the letters enlarged or reduced to any desired size. For example, if the cut-out letters of the type blocks are 60 pica, they may readily be enlarged in the proof to 144 pica or to any desired size. 60 pica is a convenient size for the type blocks since it may be easily handled and readily identified, but any convenient or desired size would serve as well. The assembled type blocks in their composing stick constitutes a complete opaque screen so that the only light reaching the sensitized paper 2 is that which passes through the transparent letters. Thus, clear solid black letters are formed in the proof which require no retouching regardless of their size. Streaks and light lines are also entirely obviated.

In addition to the advantage already discussed, it will be apparent that the transparent letters of the type blocks may be formed in any desired style, at little expense, and accordingly the printers resources are vastly increased since he may include in his equipment type blocks in script, caps, figs, lower case, Ben Day, reverse panel, or any other style known to the typographic art". Ben Day isa name given by printers to a shading process that gives a gray appearance to the impression of the type.

As a further feature, my invention includes a frame or composing stick having superposed guideways in one of which may be set up a line of type blocks and in the other of which may be inserted a transparent slide having opaque figures or ornamentation which may be superposed over the cut-out letters and so impose upon the proof thereof an ornamental pattern or a series of ornamental figures such as stars, crescents, or the like.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the outfit in partially assembled condition,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of amodified outfit,

Fig. 3 is a View in perspective of one of the individual type blocks, and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

An individual type block unit is shown in Fig. 3 in its preferred form. It comprises a hard transparent body [0 which may be of Vinylite, methyl methacrylate, or any other suitable transparent plastic product and is herein shown as made up of two stiff component plies united by cement or fusing with an opaque paper-thin negative I l interposed between them. The negative H is coextensive with and defines the effective portion of the type block and as shown in Fig. 2 it is somewhat shorter than the overall length of the type block but of the full width thereof. In it is cut out a letter l2, herein shown as an upper case C, The block is provided along one edge with a shallow rib or tongue l3 and along the other with a corresponding groove or recess 14 by which the type block may be interlocked with others in the assembling operation. The letter is so designed and placed within the outline of the block as to place it properly in an assembled line. In practice the letter may be of any desired style of font and any convenient size, for example, 60 pica. The individual type blocks are hard and substantially inflexible and may be handled and placed in the frame as conveniently as so many metallic type blocks. 7

Type blocks of the type described are designed to be assembled in a frame somewhat resembling a com-posing stick of the general character shown in Fig.1. This comprises an outer frame 15 having a flanged window for receiving an inner frame I6, the latter being held in place by dogs or pawls IT. The inner frame It is provided with a transverse guideway having opposed flanges l8 and corresponding in width to the length of the individual type blocks so that the blocks may be assembled side by side, supported on the flanges 18 in flush relation with each other and with the surface of the frame It.

In Fig. 1, five type blocks I are shown as positioned in the guideway. The blocks having the letters e, f and 0 have been pushed together and interlocks with their respective ribs and grooves. In this position the negatives ll form a unitary screen extending to and somewhat overlapping the flanges l8 so that there is no opportunity for the passage of light either between the blocks themselves or between the blocks and the frame I6.

The right-hand end of the outer frame 15 is slotted in line with the guideway of the inner frame is to receive a clamping slide I9, and the left-hand end of the frame is correspondingly slotted to receive a clamping slide 20. The two slides are provided, respectively, with ribs and grooves corresponding with those of the type blocks, so that when the feed slides are pushed inwardly, the whole series of type blocks is moved into contact with each other and a complete opaque screen is formed by the slides and the negatives of the type blocks. Both slides extend outwardly beyond the ends of the outer frame l so they may be conveniently grasped and moved to clamp or release the type blocks. Friction plugs 2| in the outer frame may be provided for holding the clamping slides in their inner or operative positions and it will be understood that the slides remain in the outer frame when the inner frame is removed from it.

.In Fig. 2 the frame [5 is shown as provided with an inner frame 30 having a guideway provided with flanges 18 for the type blocks 10, and also a superposed guideway for a supplementary slide 3|. The slide 3| is somewhat wider than the guideway beneath it so that the type blocks I 0 may be placed without obstruction, and it carries a transparent sheet 32 having any desired supplementary ornamentation thereon. The sheet 32 is herein shown as covered with dots, and while these are herein shown as widely separated, they may be arranged if desired with a spacing as close as 60 Or 144 to the inch. The purpose 510 are assembled to set up the line it is desired to print. They are locked in the frame by means of the slides 20, and if they are to have additional ornamentation, the supplementary slide 3| is superposed over them. The complete assembly is then placed in a photographic enlarger or in contact photographic apparatus, and the complete line is photographed on sensitized paper upon which it can subsequently be developed and. immediately incorporated in the dummy. After being once used, the whole apparatus is immediately available to set up another line of type.

The outfit of my invention not only takes the place of actual printe'rs type heretofore used, but has many advantages over the so-called phototype system wherein alphabets of printed type are employed which must be pasted down one by one to make a printed line. There is no opportunity for correcting such work if a mistake is once made in the selection of a letter and, moreover, the lines formed in that manner are likely to be uneven and ragged. The employment of the outfit of my invention obviates both these objections.

While the frames herein illustrated have been shown as including a single guideway for the type blocks, it will be understood that two or three guideways may usually be included in a frame of appropriate size for standard equipment. The individual type blocks may be made up in plies as herein shown or they may be cast as an integral piece with the opaque negative embedded therein.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail illustrative embodiments thereof, I claim as new and desire .to secure by Letters Patent:

A body type assembly device comprising .a frame having a guideway shouldered to receive rectangular type blocks having transparent characters therein, oppositely disposed slides for clamping type blocks in said guideway and for transversely locating the type blocks in the frame, and a transparent slide Wider than the guideway and movably mounted at a different level and having a pattern of opaque dots thereon which may be registered with the transparent characters of the type blocks for giving a Ben Day effect to the proof.

JOSEPH F. MURPHY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,079,402 Cornwall Nov. 25, 1913 1,885,555 Schwartz Nov. 1, 1932 2,346,096 Whitaker Apr. 4, 194 4 

